In
the last newsletter, we warned that there may be some disruption to the
website in January. Little did we foresee how that would play out!
So
here we are, off to a new domain and some still unsure how to pronounce
'Longecity'. And that is not the only challenge- efforts are underway
to shape the LongeCity 'brand' as a partner to the Immortality
Institute. If you look around the forums, you will find various topics
for brainstorming ideas. As these ideas are considered and
trialled, things may look unsightly for a while -- LongeCity is not a
slick marketing operation and it will take some time to get it 'right'
with community support and feedback to guide us.
Community feedback will
also be useful as we draw up our budget for 2011 to fund efforts like
the research fundraiser.
This is only possible of course with the help
of new sponsors and Members.
Thanks for your continued support!

Caliban

NEWSDiscount on HEARTSHiELD™

In recent months, we have pioneered some Member Benefits in the life-extension supplement area. This has worked well with Stop Aging Now, and
our community project VIMMORTAL .
This month, we are happy to announce that the good folks at BioArmor Labs are offering a 15% discount to Immortality Institute Members on their HEARTSHiELD™
supplements! -- Formulation 'alpha' containing a sterols, resveratrol and Q10; with 'omega' containing EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E.
Let us know what you think

The scheduled January maintenance went smoothly at first: we upgraded the forum software,
with the help of our two new engineers Rwac and AgeVivo. A few things
broke as they always do on these occasions, but in general we seemed to be
doing fine. Then we hit a problem: could we convert to longecity.org as
scheduled without disrupting links and search engine connections? We
received conflicting advice on this, so after many days of pondering,
those plans were shelved for the time being... or so we thought. Suddenly,
at the end of January, things began to play up: strange messages appeared
and then a script that tried to lure visitors away to an infested site!
We tackled the problem within minutes and took the site down. When after
some days we thought we had isolated the problem and re-opened, some issues
reappeared.
We had to take the site down again, and this time, since things really
couldn't get any more aggravating, we decided to press on with the domain
switch: So here we are, the forum part of our site is now based on
longecity.org. This got rid of the malware, but we are still not entirely
sure about the technical implications. Advice: Feel free to post in the
forums, those contributions will be saved and transferred whatever happens,
but don't update your bookmarks jut yet.

In almost 10years of running a very open-access web platform, ImmInst has
been victim to spam, denial of service and other attacks, but avoided being
used as a distributors of malicious software. We are committed to
re-establishing that track record, and decisions will need to be made about
trade offs between efficacy, usability, richness of features and safety. The
internet is not a 'safe place' - but we will at least make sure that if
LongeCity and the Immortality Institute is known for being dangerous, its is
only because of the open exchange of 'dangerous ideas' challenging received
opinions.

Sorry to tell you, but your brain is aging! While genetic dispositions differ, if you
don't die of other causes, neurodegeneration will eat away your intelligence
and personally eventually, and we know now that the process is likely
already underway. This was shown, years ago, not least by the team we are
trying to support with the still ongoing Microglia Stem Cells project!
Now this team is proposing to not just observe, but do something about brain aging, and we will
keep at it until we finally find all the money to make this happen. Many
thanks to all those who have already donated. These contributors demonstrate
that its not just about intellectual discussions as they occur on the
forums, but about being intelligent enough to identify clever projects that
are not funded by the mainstream -- and about defeating the ravages of brain
aging that have extinguished too many wonderful minds. Please consider being
just as smart, before it is too late.

In January, the Board has traditionally reviewed the
Treasurers financial report from the preceding year. Because of the
technical disruptions, we did not have time to fully discuss these reports,
but we can at least say: despite the difficult economic circumstances
LongeCity is financially stable.
Thanks to all Members, donors and sponsor
for standing up to be counted! The new constitution asks the board to
present a formal spending plan for the year in March. Those
discussions will begin very soon. Make sure you renew your membership if you
want to keep an eye on them!

Why is this newsletter styled green? Why are the forums? Initially, this was
just as an orientation aid between the 'old' and the new url, but we kept
them to hint at the possibility of change. This is not to say that we won't
be blue again, or that much more drastic changes are not a real possibility.
If you want to have a say in these processes, you should join one of two
teams: the 'Editors
Team' manages content on the site, the 'Art
Team' deals in graphics and designs. Anyone, whether Member or not can
join these teams, get stuck in improving the site and ear 'Thank You points
in the process' .

VOLUNTEERS
With the 'Thank You' or '₮' points-based system now up and running, volunteers and valued forum contributors receive these points based on their
contributions, and can redeem these
points at a 'virtual
store' for fun items -- such a your own personal emoticon, or some small
prizes or -- including free membership, Amazon gift vouchers, or even seed
capital to start your own matching fundraiser.

If you have other ideas or suggestions regarding new initiatives, please visit
the ACTION forum to
share your thoughts.
ABOUT
The LongeCity newsletter is usually send out on the 8th
day of each month to Members and registered forum users. You can find
past
newsletters here.